Smithfield Friends Newsletter February 2000 Smithfield Monthly Meeting of Friends 108 Smithfield Road Woonsocket, RI 02895 Vol.12________________________________________________________________________ No.116 Parsonage: 762-5726 Internet: http://www.oftedahl.com/SmithfieldFriends Clerk: Bruce Kay Recording Clerk Susan Furry Pastor: Marnie Miller-Gutsel Treasurer:RichardFrechette Ministry&CounselRhoda Mowry Newsletter: Randy Oftedahl CALENDAR FOR FEB/MARCH EVERY SUNDAY 10:30 am: MEETING FOR WORSHIP First Day School Child care for infants and toddlers LAST SUNDAY OF EACH MONTH: Unprogrammed Worship and Pot Luck Lunch OTHER WORSHIP UNDER THE CARE OF SMITHFIELD MEETING OR RI/SMITHFIELD QTLY. MTG. SECOND SUNDAY OF MONTH 7:00 PM: Unprogrammed Worship at Uxbridge Meetinghouse, Uxbridge, Mass EVERY WEDNESDAY 6:00 PM: Unprogrammed Worship and discussion at ACI(Maximum) Other events Sunday, Feb. 20 Following worship: Peace and Social Concerns committee meets Weds., Feb. 23 7:30 PM: Meeting for Healing at the Meetinghouse Sunday, March 5 Meeting for Business following worship NEWSLETTER DEADLINE Weds., March 8 7:30 PM: Meeting for Healing at the Meetinghouse Weds., March 22 7:30 PM: Meeting for Healing at the Meetinghouse Our dear Friend Ruth Smith will celebrate her 90th birthday with us at our pot-luck lunch and birthday party, February 27 following Meeting for Worship Letter from Marnie Dear Friends, I have a story to share with you: I heard it on a public radio celebration of Black History Month. It's also a story of great "Heart," appropriate for a month which also celebrates love. It was an interview with an African-American who, as a student at an Ivy League university, had been in the Civil Rights marches in the deep south. He spoke of hiding from marauding Klansmen and other scary experiences there. But he said nothing in the south had been as terrifying as a moment in Boston some years later. He had become a lawyer, and was working on cases involving civil rights in the work place. When a huge uproar arose in the city over the court order to integrate the Boston schools, he saw himself merely as an observer. One day after a meeting, he left his building and started to walk across a plaza near city hall. But there was an anti-bussing demonstration going on, and suddenly, several young white teenagers spotted him and rushed over. He was a completely innocent passer-by-but he was a black man, dressed in a suit, and so he was seen as "the enemy." For several moments, he was beaten unmercifully; he was covered in blood and his nose was broken. Then, most terrifyingly, another young man rushed at him carrying an American flag, brandishing its pole like a spear. The lawyer said he fully expected he was going to be killed. But the young men turned away, and ran back to the demonstration before the police finally arrived. An alert photo-journalist caught the flag wielder in a picture that later won a Pulitzer prize. It was also used to identify and arrest the boys who had assaulted the black lawyer. Yet he did not press charges. When the interviewer questioned him further about his feelings, he said he empathized with the young men. Why? This seems counter-intuitive. But, the lawyer explained, he too had grown up in an impoverished neighborhood, and understood the anger and fear that was driving the boys. He said he might have followed the road to violence himself, if it had not been for two things: he had people who cared about him and supported him, and he had been encouraged to get an excellent education--one that finally lifted him out of the poverty and degradation he had known as a small boy. But that wasn't quite the end of the story. Several years later, a man appeared unexpectedly in the lawyer's office--it was one of his assailants, now grown, and he had come to apologize for the assault. It was the final link in a chain of redemption that had begun long before. But it also reveals the strange and unexpected power of compassion--which literally means "to feel with." Because the lawyer could "feel with" his enemies, he was able to forgive. And one of them, at least, had been redeemed, had been brought to repentance. Seldom is the Truth in Jesus' words illustrated so literally --"Love your enemies, and do good... .and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High." (Luke 6:35) May God's loving compassion light your path this month, and always. Blessings, Marnie Meeting For Healing Ministry and Counsel continues to sponsor a midweek Meeting for Worship for Healing for members and attenders who are going through difficult or troubling times in their lives, or who have family members or friends in need of prayer for whatever reason. We meet downstairs in the Meeting House for a Meeting for Worship with a worship sharing format, where people may share burdens to be held in the Light. Meetings for healing are held on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, at 7:30 PM downstairs in the Meeting House. Upcoming dates are Feb. 23 and Mar. 8. Be a Greeter! There's a brand new sign-up sheet on the bulletin board for the easiest job in the Meeting. If you haven't done it for a while, please sign up again, and plan to arrive about 10:15 on the date you have selected. It's a great way to meet our visitors as well as old F/friends. Think Summer!! Brochures for Friends Music Camp and our own NEYM China (Maine)Camp are here. Look for fliers in the basket in the foyer. Ecumenical Fellowship Breakfast We have received an invitation from the Rhode Island State Council of Churches to attend the annual Ecumenical Fellowship Breakfast to be held at 7 AM on Sunday, March 26, in the Venus de Milo Restaurant in Swansea, MA. The speaker this year will be Dr. Lloyd J. Ogilvie, Chaplain to the United States Senate. The breakfast will end in time for people to return to their home churches for worship.) Tickets are available at $10 a person; call the Council office in Providence for reservations--861-1700. Prison Dharma Walk The American Friends Service Committee has brought to our attention a Prison Dharma Walk focused on Mumia Abu Jamal, who is facing execution in Pennsylvania. Many people believe that Mumia was convicted of murder incorrectly and for political reasons. The Dharma Prison Walk walk is a simple prayer walk, being led by Mun, a Buddhist nun. It will begin at the Norfolk State Prison in Massachusetts on March 12 and will continue to the Greene Prison in Waynseburg, PA. on April 25. Concerned persons are invited to participate in the walk. For more information, contact the Grafton Peace Pagoda at 518-658-9301 between the hours of 7:30PM and 9:00 PM. There is also a flyer available at the meetinghouse. The first step of the walk will take it through Woonsocket and Chepachet, RI. on March 13 and 14. If any Friends are able to provide overnight hospitality, or help in preparing a group meal at the meetinghouse for the walkers (about 15 are anticipated), please contact Marcel St. Germain (765-6515). Love and Fear Marnie Miller-Gutsell By request, Marnie is sharing for this newsletter, the sermon she gave at Smithfield Friends Meeting, February 6, 2000 Scripture:1 John 4:16-21--God is love, and those who abide in love, abide in God, and God abides in them. In this way, love has been made complete among us, so that we may have confidence at the day of judgment: because as God is, so are we in the world. There is no fear in love, but perfected love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and one who fears has not matured in love. We love, because [God] first loved us. Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, they are liars; for those who do not love brothers and sisters whom they have seen, how can they love God whom they have not seen. And this commandment we have from [God]: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. Agape--that's the Greek word which is translated as "love" in this passage. Agape is the compassionate love that partakes of divine love, the kind of love which is the highest religious value in both Judaism and Christianity. This kind of love is more than feelings of warm tenderness. Agape is a response of the whole self--not only emotions, but mind and spirit as well. But how poorly we understand this, much less live it. It's so easy to say we love God, or we love all the children of God. But particular people, or particular groups of people--obnoxious neighbors, arrogant bosses, politicians--ahh.. That's a bit different. But Jesus said "This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you." (John 15:12) Agape may include warm feelings, but it doesn't have to, because essentially it's a love of the mind and the will and the spirit. The warm feelings--the excitement of romance, the tender affection for a child or spouse or friend--they arise on their own and can't be forced. But agape involves choice, and effort, and intention. And it can be learned. We can't make ourselves feel tenderness for someone, but we can choose to engage with them--even if we have to grit our teeth to do it; we can learn to love them in this agape sense of the word. We can try to see ourselves in other people's situations, so we can have a better understanding of their feelings. We can even learn to love people we don't like very much. We may ask ourselves, for instance, "Is this person a bully because he's afraid of something?" John's letter makes an important point when it says that love that has been perfected, love that is mature, "casts out fear." In this passage, the real opposite of love is fear; hate is mentioned, but that is not what love casts out. Love casts out fear. And fear is often what lies under hate, under anger, under contempt, under the need to exclude, under the need to control--under all those negative responses to other people. The fear behind these responses is very often a failure of compassion, of the ability to understand how someone else feels, especially those who are not like us. Often we 're taught this fear in our homes or our communities, even in some of our churches. But we can unlearn it, and we must. Because it "de-faces" the other. It takes away their human face, their identity as a fellow child of God. Fear underlies many of the negative and hostile interactions that we see all around us. Love, agape, can cast it out, but not until the fear is identified and dealt with. We can defuse the anger in particular incidents, we can pass laws requiring inclusiveness, we can set up new power-sharing institutions, but as long as fear lurks underneath, where agape cannot address it, the trouble will continue. For instance, I believe fear is behind the current refusal of the Irish Republican Army to disarm, even though this threatens the brand new government in Northern Ireland. It's easy to point out that this is a stupid choice that will destroy this first fragile power sharing. But the time I spent in Belfast makes me pretty confident concerning my guess about what's in the collective mind of the IRA: Something like, "The Prods [the Protestants] aren't disarming. If we decommission our weapons, we'll be sitting ducks." Fear. Ancient. Primitive. Not a good guide to ones best interests in many situations. But it's very real and must be addressed with love. And we must never forget that fear is very difficult to address because it can be quite legitimate. It's normal. It has survival value. It's hardwired into us by evolution over the millennia to keep us alive, and we shouldn't expect--or want--to get rid of it entirely. But we need to put it under the power of agape, so we can distinguish between genuine and imagined dangers, and respond in the right way. And that is exactly what has not happened in Providence this past week. Not yet, any way, although it may--and I see some hopeful signs. But as I follow the newspaper and television reports, I can't help but see the death of the young black policeman, Cornel Young, Jr., as the center of a series of events driven by fear. For those who may have been missed some of the commotion-- which has now made national news--I'll summarize the events. They began--in one sense--at 1:30 AM January 28 when this young policeman, off duty but carrying his weapon, tried to assist in breaking up a fight in a restaurant parking lot. In circumstances which are still unclear, he was shot by a fellow officer who had been called to the fight. But in another sense, the primary fear that drove all of this, and the subsequent events, began long ago--years, even centuries back. It began in an ancient failure of agape, an ancient failure to recognize the Africans as fellow human beings because they were so "different." I won't rehearse the whole beastly history of slavery, but it left every single American with a legacy of mutual fear and suspicion that has persisted to this day-and needs to be addressed better than it has been. But we can't get into battles with the ghosts of history. We have to begin where we are. And there are other elements of fear bouncing around in this tragedy. Why, for instance, was a gun hauled out to settle a fight between four women in a parking lot? To intimidate. To cause fear. Because underneath, the gunman and his girlfriend are also afraid, quite possibly because in a culture awash in guns it's likely that somebody else also has one. Do unto others before they do unto you. And why did the Ministers' Alliance, a black clergy association, feel they needed to call in Christopher Cooper, a representative of the National Black Police Association, to review the shooting. Fear again. Fear that because a black officer had been shot by a white officer, there would be a cover-up. Justice would not be done. Some of the more moderate members of the Alliance seem to have gotten more than they bargained for, because Mr. Cooper immediately began making unsupported accusations: the white officers lied; obviously they stereotyped black men and believed that any black man with a gun was a criminal; they intentionally disregarded Young's identification of himself as a fellow officer; the police culture always encourages a man to prove he is the "ultimate cop" by finding somebody to shoot. Because these things have happened before, elsewhere, of course they must also be true here. As the Queen says to Alice in Alice in wonderland, "Verdict first! Trial afterwards!" A very similar approach was taken by the some 300 demonstrators at city hall who demanded that the two other officers immediately be fired and charged with murder. When Mayor Cianci would not immediately admit that it was a racist killing, he was shouted down. But before we dismiss all this as arrogant nonsense, we need to see with the eyes of agape. We need to hear with the ears of agape. What is really going on here? It's more than arrogance and anger. There's deep suspicion. Deep distrust. Deep fear that in encounters with the police, African Americans too often meet with suspicion, and too seldom with respect. Deep fear that there is seldom justice for people of color. When people are afraid, they get angry. They shout. They try to take control of the situation with dramatic accusations. Are those accusations true? We can't know at this point. Perhaps we won't ever know exactly what happened in the parking lot of the Fidas Restaurant. But lashing back at the protesters with our own anger? That won't help, as Officer Young's parents keep trying to point out. His father is concerned that divisiveness will interfere with finding the truth. Are there people with their own agendas deliberately trying to aggravate the situation? Quite possibly. But they couldn't do that if there were nothing to work with, and this we do know: whatever happened here, behind all the anger and shouting there is an ancient and very dark legacy of genuine injustice, which has led to mistrust and fear--and all of us must work to heal that. Meeting anger with anger, fear with fear does not help. Because fear divides. Fear "de-faces" everyone, so we cannot see each other's real identities. We all become mere stick figures, symbols, to be attacked or manipulated. Cornel Young's mother touched on this "de-facing" when she spoke of her son, whose nickname was Jai: "Everyone is taking this personally, and I understand how they feel. But what I want most of all is that Jai--who he was--doesn't get lost in this process." And I found a lot of hope in the news accounts, agape at work, if you like, casting out fear. Some black clergy sought to extend an olive branch to the mayor, saying they didn't have a problem with him per se, but, "we are under pressure to represent the tension that our communities feel." But I was most moved by the statements of Officer Young's parents. His father acknowledged and respected the anger of the community, and admitted his own anger. But as I said earlier, he didn't want division between the communities to interfere with the investigation. But his mother's words were most beautiful and remarkable, full of the agape ability to "feel with" others and to reach across divisions, trying to encourage understanding. She urged white people to try recognize the privileges of whiteness-- like being able to buy a house without wondering if your neighbors will be angry when you move in because you are a different race. She urges white people to ask themselves if these events would not be very upsetting to us, if we had had to live with the constant denial of those privileges white people take for granted. I want to close with two quotes from Mrs. Young which I found especially perceptive: First, "Racism exists in isolation. It's very easy to hate someone if you don't know them. It's hard to hate someone if you know them. In Jai's class there were some people, I'm sure, for whom Jai was the first black person they'd met." And second, "There are some real serious issues here, such as racial stereotyping, some of the realities of being a minority in our society. But Jai wasn't about perpetuating things as they are. If he were, he wouldn't have become a police officer. What we've always had is violence and anger and separation and misunderstanding. If that was going to work, it would have already....I told myself, you could have kept him safe all his life if you hadn't taught him all those things--that he had a right to try and change the world." In closing, let us consider again the words of this first letter of John: "There is no fear in love, but perfected love casts out fear....We love, because [Godi first loved us. Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers or sisters, they are liars; for those who do not love brothers and sisters whom they have seen, how can they love God whom they have not seen. And this commandment we have from [Godi: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also." -continued on back page -"Love and Fear," continued - Closing prayer: Lord, may the promise you gave through the prophet Ezekiel become truth for us. You have said, "A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within in you; and I will take the heart of stone out of your body, and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you." Lord, make it so. Amen (Ezekiel 36:26-27)Fellowship with those who are concerned in "strengthening the Christian witness throughout the world" has helped Friends in appreciating the importance of standing together for a belief in the purposes of God in a world where indifference and materialism prevail. Friends have come to see the importance of a common witness with others arising from a common Christian faith rather than because they happen to agree in some one application of such faith. Responsibility for maintaining our special testimonies remains; but these should not be seen in isolation, but as expressions of our Christian faith. -London Yearly Meeting, 1954 Smithfield Monthly Meeting of Friends 108 Smithfield Road Woonsocket, RI 02895